Time to catch up on what the family has been doing...

Michael and Nikita both had excellent report cards for the first marking period. 

Michael had 3 A's and 3 B's.  what even better is that all his teachers struck a chord about how courteous he is and how he makes insightful contributions to class.

I'll admit that Nikita really wowed me by being right on schedule as far as his abilities at school.  His math and reading skills are coming along nicely and his handwriting is beautiful!

Genna designed her own Halloween costume and we worked together to make it.  I think it turned out pretty nice.  Nikita wore the Buzz Lightyear costume I had made for Michael when he was in Kindergarten.

Soccer season is nearly over. (Yippee.) Gymnastics season just started with Genna's first recreational meet.  She did beautifully.  Her scores ranged from 8.3 to 8.8 with a total score of 34.2.  Her floor routine was her best score.  you can watch it here: Gennas Debut Floor Routine

Nikita was the lucky one.  He was only sick for one day, prpbably just a seasonal bug and not the dread H1N1.

Michael is not so lucky.  He is down for day three.  He is missing the end of the marking period party at school today.  He was going to be allowed to go because he had no missing classwork and no discipline problems since school started.  HE is also missing his Order of the Arrow Ordeal weeknd at Boy Scout camp.  He was supposed to be inducted into the BSA 'honor society' this weekend. I hope there's a next time.

Genna and I are working on sewing her Halloween Costume.  She will be dresses as a Vampire-Bumble Bee or "Bumble -Pire".  I will be sure to post pics when we are done.

Nikita woke up this morning with the typical symptoms of H1N1;  fever, sore throat, cough, headache.  I'm not planning to take him to the doctor unless things get significantly worse. 

I am debating how much to quarrantine him from the other kids.  I wouldn't want him to pick up a secondary infection right now.  But I don't see any value in trying to keep the other kids away from his flu.  With this epidemic they'll either get it from him or from someone else.

The policy of the schools has been to stay open no matter how many kids are out sick.  They have slowed down the pace of their teaching and are trying to make it very easy for students to keep up or catch up after an absence.  I think this is a pretty practical approach, especially since it appears that the virus does not affect adults (ie teachers) in the large numbers that are seen with the children. 

This past week the carpool line, which usually stretches out of the lot and the entire lenght of the school property, has been starkly short, maybe only two or three cars at a time.  Yesterday was the first day the line made it out of the lot.

Meanwhile, Nikita is getting copious amounts of Sprite and other fluids, lots of rest and lots of Videos to watch in his room.

Michael finished the rain barrel this weekend.  It was his last step to earn his Soil and Water conservation Merit Badge.  Below is his version of what he did.

For the past three mornings, when I have gone to drive the van somewhere I have discovered a huge puddle of something pink and oily under the very front of the van.

This morning, when I went out to drive the van to the service center, there was no puddle.

I really don't think the old girl fixed herself.  Neither did the service guy.

If God hears prayers for things, please pray for Granny, our nearly-ten-year-old minivan with nearly 200,000 miles of loyal service under her belt.  We're not ready to see her go just yet. 

In case God prefers prayers for people, you can throw in a request for us, that we can get a few more miles and months out of our trusty van before we have to replace her with something that requires monthly payments.

This weekend we drove up to Philadelphia to attend the wedding of Richard's cousin, Jennifer.  They held their ceremony in St. Anne's Catholic Church, which was built in the 1800's.  After the ceremony we were treated to a tour of the city on a DUKW (Duck)

We saw a few of the historic sites in the city.  But the thing that held the attention of the kids was the duck billed quacker that we each received.  Of course, Michael is now way too old for toys like that, but Richard and I aren't!

The reception was held at the Adventure Aquarium across the river in Camden NJ.  We  ate, drank and were merry while a dozen sharks circled nearby.  Yikes!

The groom opened the celebration with a presentation explaning how his courtship of his new wife was inspired by Lionel Ritchie and his video 'Hello'.  The couple danced to the tune while being watched by a huge bust of said singer covered in chocolate. 

The figure was actually all cake, made by the Food Network's 'Ace of Cakes' (one of my kids' favorite shows!).  I can proudly say that I have eaten a cake baked by a TV star.  By the was it was DELICIOUS.

The icing on the proverbial cake (not the actual cake) was my pleasure in dancing with both my boys during the course of the night.  Genna, meanwhile, was honing her babysitting skills and loving every minute. 

Nikita asked me to take a picture of him with his soccer ball to send to Grandma and Papa.  He played such a great game this weekend. 

He even had a breakaway and took the ball all the way to the goal.  Unfortunately he kicked it just a little too hard and felt the need to bend over and stop the ball with his hand so he could kick it into the goal.

But he made up for it on the next possession.  When the ball went out of bounds and the ref blew the whistle he kept right on kicking until the ball went into the goal.  SCORE!!!! (ish)

Now if we could just get him to follow directions from his coach.  He wants to play the way the big boys play.  On Michael's team there are boys who stay back by the goal to play defense.  So Nikita is always hanging back by whichever goal is farthest from the ball.  Sometimes it's defense, sometimes it's offense.  Good thing the refs don't call offside at this age.

Daddy pulled out all the bikes, cleaned them up, filled the tires and even took nikita's training wheels off.  Look what happened!

At face value, I like the idea of the president telling our nations schoolchildren that he supports the efforts to provide quality education.  I also like that he is using his authority to challenge our youth to work hard in their responsibilities.

I appreciate the opportunity to review the speech beforehand to be sure that it does not say anything to my children that I would object to.  They are my children after all, and nobody has any business talking to them without my permission.

Would the White House have released the transcript early without the controversy? I don't know for sure but I doubt it.  Let this be a lesson learned for the White House and let the President open the school year with the kind of inspiration and hope that he is famous for.

School started for us last Wednesday.

Nikita headed off to Kindergarten.  He was quite nervous as I walked him to school.  But when he got to his classroom he realized that he knew exactly what to do.  He hung up his backpack, grabbed his nametag from his seat and was about to start coloring when he remembered to give me a big hug and kiss and say goodbye.

He spent his recess time collecting huge acorns from the playground to scatter in our yard for the squirrels.  His favorite parts of the day were going to the library, art class and gym.  I think a big part of that is the GOING part.  otherwise they spend most of the day in their own part of the school.

Although I had told him that kindergarteners don't always have to take naps, he has been exhausted when he gets home from school. It's an all-day kindergarten.  So he is still taking a little nap after school until Michael gets home.

Yep, Michael is going off to school every day this year too.  He started eigth grade at the public middle school the same day Nikita started kindergarten.  He was a little nervous himself getting on the bus on the first day.  But when he got home that day he reported that nothing went wrong.  He has an old friend from cub scouts in every one of his classes and found a former soccer teammate to sit with at lunch.

He still isn't happy about having to spend eight hours a day at school.  I don't blame him.  But I was spending more than eight hours a day nagging him to get his schoolwork and chores done and I wasn't happy about that.  Basically I told him he lost the priveledge of homeschooling.  I think he is sufficiently upset about it that he will work to earn back the priveledge.  Meanwhile, he is only doing what most other kids his age have to do for education.  It won't hurt him.  And I have a half dozen people helping me to instill some organization and good study habits.

That gives me the opportunity to rebuild a positive relationship with my teenage son.  Hopefully I will be able to stopp nagging and get back to talking and listening.  After the first five days things look good.

That also reduces our homeschool to "The Davis School for Girl".  Both Genna and I are excited about the possibilities that are opened up for this year.  We spent the first day of school reading, shoppping and going out to lunch.  We spent the second day of school baking cookies for the guys in the family.  Days three through five added a little more school- like book work but not so much that we didn't still have fun.  Cottage School doesn't start until mid-September so we still have a couple more weeks to have fun before we have to settle down and get serious about Latin and Literature.

This school year will be dramatically different for us.  we're all hoping ti will be a great one!